County Judge Denies Relief In Sanatoga Defamation Suit

SANATOGA PA – Sanatoga-based engineering and surveying firm Bursich Associates Inc. and its president, Scott A. Exley, have lost their latest legal maneuver in a years-old Montgomery County court battle in which they claimed they were defamed by a Pottstown businessman.

County Court of Common Pleas Judge Emanuel A. Bertin has denied a motion, filed late last year by Bursich and Exley as plaintiffs, that sought to overturn an Aug. 9 (2012) jury verdict from the courthouse in Norristown. It determined they had not been maligned by defendant David W. Fisher of Pottstown, in a case that alleged Fisher publicly ridiculed them in a parody of The Mercury newspaper he was said to have distributed.

Their lawsuit sought a damage award of more than $50,000.

Last September, about a month after the jury reached its verdict, Bursich and Exley went back to court to claim the trial judge had erred in accepting its decision. They asked for entry of a judgment in their favor and a new trial on damages. Bertin filed his denial of their request for post-trial relief on Jan. 10 (2013), following oral arguments heard Dec. 19 (2012).

The lawsuit, opened during 2006 as Case No. 2006-28018, claimed Exley endured “impairment of his reputation in the community, personal humiliation, mental anguish and suffering” from the parody, according to the newspaper report. Bursich additionally said Fisher’s alleged actions were done “intentionally and, at a minimum, in a reckless fashion” and negatively affected the company’s reputation in the community, The Mercury reported last year.